Proverbs 4:1–4

¹THEREFORE we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

¹¹Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

⁸My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

¹MY son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

²So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

³Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

⁴If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

⁵Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

¹¹As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

¹²That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

¹MY son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

²⁰Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.

¹⁷Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.

⁴Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

²⁰¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

²¹Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

²²When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

²³For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

³²Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.

³³Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

³⁴Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.

³⁶But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

⁶If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

²My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

⁹Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

³My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.

⁶Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

⁷For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.

⁹They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

³⁰If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;

³¹If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

³²Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

¹⁶Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

¹⁷If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

⁹¶ And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

¹⁹But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

⁴For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.

²⁰Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

²¹That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?

¹HEAR this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:

²Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

³My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

⁵And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

¹FURTHERMORE David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.

¹⁶Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

⁵And these were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel:

¹³Go and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him, Didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then doth Adonijah reign?

¹⁴Behold, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee, and confirm thy words.

¹⁵¶ And Bath-sheba went in unto the king into the chamber: and the king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king.

¹⁶And Bath-sheba bowed, and did obeisance unto the king. And the king said, What wouldest thou?

¹⁷And she said unto him, My lord, thou swarest by the Lord thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne.

²⁴¶ And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him.

²⁵And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.

²³¶ O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

¹⁰And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

¹MY son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

⁴And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

⁹¶ And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

²Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

¹⁵And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

³Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

⁵When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

⁹Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

¹⁹For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

⁹And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

³After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

⁴Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.

⁵Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

¹¹Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

¹¹Now, my son, the Lord be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee.

¹²Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God.

¹³Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.

¹⁴Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.

¹⁵Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work.

¹⁶Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.